Kristen Smith 
- Unmanned aircraft detected, analyzed and responded to electromagnetic threats with no humans involved
- Hivemind flew aboard an L3Harris Green Wolf launched effects system
- The flight builds on a February simulation that fused multi-aircraft threat intelligence into a common spectrum picture
L3Harris Technologies and Shield AI have flown the first live test of the DiSCO electromagnetic battle management ecosystem equipped with Hivemind mission-autonomy software, moving their autonomous electronic warfare pairing from simulation to a flight range. L3Harris announced the milestone Thursday.
During the demonstration, unmanned aircraft detected, analyzed and responded to electromagnetic threats with no human in the loop. Hivemind, running aboard an L3Harris Green Wolf launched effects system, commanded the aircraft using threat data supplied by DiSCO — short for Distributed Spectrum Collaboration and Operations — and autonomously redirected follow-on unmanned systems through a safe operating zone.
Lauren Barnes, president of spectrum superiority within L3Harris’ communications and spectrum dominance segment, said the test shows how quickly concepts can become operational capability, giving warfighters speed and resilience against evolving threats.
How Did the DiSCO Flight Test Build on a Previous Simulation?
The live flight follows a hardware-in-the-loop simulation in which DiSCO fused threat intelligence from multiple unmanned aircraft into a common operating picture of the spectrum and Hivemind-powered aircraft plotted safe zones from those insights.
During the latest demo, multiple UAS carried L3Harris’ compact, software-defined Deceptor electronic warfare payload.
Christian Gutierrez, senior vice president of Hivemind at Shield AI, said the combination produced something neither system could achieve alone and proved Hivemind can compress the sensor-to-decision cycle in real time.
What Comes Next for the L3Harris-Shield AI Partnership?
The two companies plan to broaden the pairing into additional mission sets, relying on open-architecture designs to push autonomous electronic warfare closer to frontline operations. Their collaboration dates to early 2025, when they first announced plans to link Hivemind with the vendor-agnostic DiSCO ecosystem.
